At some point this season, the Vanderbilt Commodores are going to have to figure out how to start well.
For the third game in a row, Vanderbilt was sluggish out of the gate, this time with head coach Jerry Stackhouse away from the team and assistant Adam Mazarei serving as acting head coach for the night. Early on, the Commodores couldn’t get much to fall against a tricky Radford defense, falling behind 17-10 at the 11:55 mark. Scotty Pippen Jr. and Dylan Disu would carry Vanderbilt down the stretch in the first half, though, and the Commodores went into the break with a 26-25 lead in spite of shooting just 34 percent from the floor.